Tibetan Plateau, September/October 2005

On-the-road trip reports and pictures from an eight week trip covering 4400km, mostly in the Amdo-Tibet and Kham-Tibet areas of China. Click on any thumbnail for full size pic.....

Golmud out and back.........

Subject: Hi from Golmud.....
Date: Sep 10, 2005 11:53 AM

Greetings from Golmud, in Qinghai province, North of Tibet. The town is
variously described in guidebooks as 'oblivion end of china' or 'depressing and
forlorn' - it doesn't seem that bad! Spent the last week riding the 780km from
Lanzhou. Interesting riding, starting off with the climb of the Nyima la pass,
on to the tibetan plateau, then passing through grassland with hundreds of
nomads tents and sheep and cattle, then crossing over into the desert for the
final few days. Finding the riding quite hard, having to carry food and water
for a few days at times, occasional snowstorms or hailstorms on the passes, plus
a fierce headwind for the last 2 days crossing the desert, struggling to get
above walking pace at times. At least the road is in good condition though!
Camping in the desert really cool, very quiet and dark, watching the stars, just
the occasional lights and rumble from a long distance lorry appearing from the
distance.

Anyway, thats the easy bit out of the way! Spending a couple of days here,
mainly horizontal (!), watching american films badly dubbed into chinese, and
eating a lot. Will hit the road again in a couple of days, once I've recovered a
bit. Hope everything OK back in UK.

Heading south to Yushu

Subject: Yushu'd take up an easier hobby!!
Date: Oct 5, 2005 6:59 AM

Hi All, now in Yushu, 1447km from Golmud, in deepest Khampa Tibet.
Unable to get through on the golmud-lhasa road, individual travellers
not being allowed through at the moment, and cunning attempt to slip
through at 4am got spotted! Had to backtrack for a few days back
across the desert and the plains (the plains that were full of nomads
the week before now empty apart from a few tyre tracks, an eerie
sight) before heading south, crossing two big mountain ranges
A'nyemaqen Shan and Bayan Har Shan to get here. Impressive town, busy
bustling place, nestled deep in a steep sided valley overlooked by the
huge Jyekundo monastery high up on the steep hillside.

Some incredible sights on the way, sitting in the sun brewing up green
tea on deserted high passes with prayer flags fluttering in the
breeze, riding through tiny villages clustered around buddhist temples
clinging to the hillside, plains full of cattle and brown tents
festooned with prayer flags, gaggles of young buddhists in red robes
clamouring round when I stop in some of the villages (for some reason
the buddhists seem fascinated by the technical details of the bike,
gears, toe clips, water bottles, bike computer - especially the
computer!).

Some difficult days too, roadworks for the first 2 days heading south,
road down to dirt, sand and rock, constant stream of lorries covering
everything in dust, road builders camps every few kilometres making it
hard to find good camping spots. And crossing the Bayan Har Shan
particularly hard, road goes up to 4600m then seems to spend forever
crossing desolate plateau, constantly going up and down in short stiff
climbs and drops, took me 2 days to get over it, on the 2nd day it
started snowing hard, whiteout, road starting to get covered in snow,
down to 1 gear on the bike as the gears got clogged with ice, hands
and feet soaked and frozen - quite a relief to make it down off the
plateau to the next village to thaw out with green tea and noodles!

Quite cold at night, camping out on the passes, mostly above 4000m,
most nights wearing most of my clothes inside the sleeping bag, and
still chilly. Living mainly on instant noodles, chinese energy drink,
and biscuits (which are about the 3 things that every shop no matter
how tiny always stock) and occasional cafe stop for momos and rice -
am constantly hungry! Interesting wildlife, on the higher areas see
foxes stalking through the snow, huge birds of prey on almost every
other telegraph pole, and the ever present marmots scurrying about.

Thats about all to report for now! Will hang around here for a couple
of days to recover, eat a lot, and work out route from here. Great to
get a hot shower too, after 6 days of wild camping. Hope everything OK
back in the UK!!

West to Ganze

Subject: Latest report from tibet.....
Date: Oct 5, 2005 6:59 AM

Greetings, Now in Ganze (garze/gansi - every place here seems to have about 10
different spellings!), 480km from Yushu on small back roads of varying quality,
mostly bumpy tarmac, but quite a lot of dirt road too, and mostly above 4000m.
This is still in the Kham-Tibet area, or "Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture"
to give it its catchy official chinese title! Superb route through from Yushu
though, very noticeably more Tibetan, huge numbers of monasteries on hillsides,
lots of nomad tents festooned with prayer flags, more high passes with
fluttering prayer flags, and cries of 'Hollo' disappear almost completely, to be
replaced by constant enthusiastic shouts of 'Tashi Dele' (tibetan hello/good
luck) and smiles and waves. Very little traffic, mostly buddhists in red robes
on motorbikes, and the occasional lorry or SUV. Some superb moments,
particularly...................

Riding towards Sershul monastery in the early morning, hands still frozen from
packing away the frost covered tent, when a tibetan buddhist monk runs down to
the road and invites me into his tent for tea - inside there are 6 slumbering
buddhists under thick blankets. I sat and warmed up as he piled more dried yak
dung into the stove and made me black tea and tsampa for breakfast.

Arriving in a tiny village near Serxu, almost dark, smoke coming from the tiny
mud huts on the hillside, some small dwellings burrowed into the side of the mud
cliffs, and prayer flags and shrines sillouhetted on the hillside above.
Everyone pointed me to the small guest house, which looked like a disused barn
from outside, but sure enough inside was a small room with wooden beams and 5
beds, and tibetan family who sat with me for a while, then gave me momos and yak
butter tea for breakfast.

Coming down from a high pass in furious hailstorm, very wet and cold, and
getting invited in to a small nomad tent, the whole family in there, a couple of
buddhist monks sitting by the stove,
grunting of yaks from outside. I sat and warmed up as they gave me rice with yak
butter and chilli sauce, and very buttery tea!

Or riding up the long pass after the sprawling Dzogchen monastery, up a steep
sided valley, for a change very quiet, no tents or dwellings, then steep
hairpins on dirt road before arriving at mass of prayer flags at the top, huge
mass of rocky mountains suddenly appearing and completely deserted.

Or the ride down to Ganze, slight feeling of sadness that I was dropping down
and leaving the higher plains behind, but superb landscape as it changed
dramatically from bleak plains and hills to wide sun baked valley, parched
yellow fields, tall brown square buildings with mud walls, and tree lined roads
- it almost felt like I had ridden into a different country, although the
constant monasteries, small shrines, and shouts of 'Tashi Dele' reminded me that
it was still very Tibetan.

Some less good times too, lots of cold and wet weather, when it rains here it
really chucks it down, and the riding can be hard going especially on the
rockier dirt roads. The night in a cheap hotel in Maniganggo, kept awake all
night by a whole family of rats scuttling around the floor and clambering over
my bike must rate as one of the low points of the whole trip!

All in all though, an incredible area - maybe not as many spectacular sights as
the package-tour areas of Lhasa and Shigatse, but a lot quieter, seems a lot
less visited, and just normal Tibetans and Tibetan buddhist monks getting on
with their daily lives, and their incredible friendliness and generosity towards
complete strangers.

For now, I am spending a couple of days in Ganze, stocking up on food, and
browsing the map for the onward route. Hope everything is well back in the UK!

Ganze to Lanzhou

Subject: Greetings from Xiahe
Date: Oct 18, 2005 3:47 AM

Hi from Xiahe, now 997km away from Ganze (via my meandering back route). Town is
home to one of the largest buddhist monasteries in china, and lies about 300km
south-west of Lanzhou. From Ganze I was originally thinking of continuing south
to Chengdu, but this route back up north looked really interesting on the map,
and much longer too, too hard to resist! It turned out to be a superb route,
often following river valleys interspersed by high passes, and long rolling
grasslands. Too many great sights to describe really, but some of the more
interesting moments:

After leaving Luhuo, and riding over a high and rather bleak pass on bumpy dirt
road, the road headed down into a steep sided mountain valley with roaring river
below. The character of the villages changed dramatically, from the small mud
walled houses near Luhuo, to tall stone built swiss-chalet-like houses clinging
to the hillside, with elaborate colourful paintwork. And one and half days of
downhill!! I came across quite a few buddhist monks walking this road,
prostrating themselves on the ground every few steps.

Climbing up towards Maerkang, more colourfully painted stone houses, flowers
growing in gardens, neat piles of bright yellow sweetcorn drying on balconies,
and crops growing on terraces. With the warm sun on my back, I felt like I could
have been in the mediterranean. Only the occasional cluster of prayer flags,
small shrines, or my favourite, water-powered prayer wheels, reminded me where I
was!

A rather grim day getting to Xoige, getting chased by quite a few vicious dogs,
pitching the tent in heavy rain and rumbles of thunder, too wet to go outside
and cook anything, then freezing cold morning kicking snow off everything, and
constant roadworks, with road down to slippery wet mud and rocks. I was feeling
a bit gloomy at this point, but then coming towards me, two other cycle
tourists, the first I had seen since arriving in china 6 weeks ago. It turned
out to be an english couple who were riding from Scandinavia to Australia, via
Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and China. Meeting them really cheered me up,
and my tour, and its difficulties, suddenly seemed a bit Noddy in comparison.
And after that the sun even came out for the rest of the day!

Last night before reaching Xiahe, arriving at a tiny tibetan village (not even
on my map) just before dark, monastery on the hillside behind, groups of
buddhist monks in the street, little pigs wandering about everywhere, and
finding it had a small guest house, no loo or running water, just a bed in a
bare stone floored room, but compared to tent, hugely luxurious! And then the
next day taking a deserted dirt back road (also not even on my map) across to
Xiahe, just the occasional nomads heading south with their tent and possessions
strapped on the backs of their herd of yaks.............

All in all, a really interesting couple of weeks. I was expecting things to get
less tibetan and more chinese as I got further north, but not at all - everytime
I thought that I was finally back in more-mainstream china, yet another
monastery, small village with temple and prayer wheel circuit, small shrine and
pile of rocks, or cluster of prayer flags would appear!

Anyway, am planning to stay here in Xiahe for a few days to relax, and wander
round the monastery. Town was a bit of a shock to the system at first, quite a
big tourist attraction, cafes with english menus etc, lots of westerners, and
after 6 weeks of hardly seeing another english speaking person, I had to resist
the urge to rush up and talk to every westerner I saw!! After this I'll head up
to Lanzhou for flight back, so next email from me will probably be from the UK -
after the bitter cold here, I am looking forward to getting back to the nice
warm climate of England!!